Explanation of colors & status codes
W3C indicates the maturity of specifications by a status code.
The CSS working group uses the following, from least to
most stable:
The names are defined in
sections 7.3 and 7.4 of
the W3C process document. A REC is what is normally referred to as
a “standard.” W3C encourages everyday use starting from CR.
The informal stability levels used to group the specs are
defined in this
2007 description of CSS stability levels.
If you want to help
Everybody can take part in the discussions on the archived
mailing list www-style@w3.org. You can subscribe yourself. This is the
preferred place for discussions, because the members of the working
group will see them. Please, don't use this list for questions of
the type How do I… Use comp.
infosystems. www. authoring. stylesheets ("ciwas") or see “Learning CSS”.
On the mailing list, you will be talking to many people, many
very busy people. Before you post, please, search the archive
to see if your great idea has maybe already been discussed. Follow
the usual netiquette and W3C's policies on spam,
attachments, etc.
If you are sending comments on a specific CSS module, please
prefix the subject of your message with the appropriate spec code
(given in the “Status of this document” section) in brackets, e.g.
“[css3-flexbox] error in margin calculations”. This will help the
editors find and track your comments.
Laurens Holst (a.k.a.
“Grauw”) maintains an FAQ for www-style.
(For additions, please, contact Laurens directly. Laurens is not
associated with W3C.)
You can also raise issues via GitHub. Github
contains copies of the editors' drafts of the CSS specifications
and “Houdini”
APIs.
Birkir Gunnarsson wrote a helpful guide Mastering GitHub with a screen reader, part 1.
If you work for a W3C member organization, you can also join the CSS working group and come to
its meetings. To participate, you need to commit to (on average)
1 day per week. Contact me (Bert
Bos) or your organization's W3C contact person. The group's
minutes are public and posted on the CSS WG
blog.
About the test suites
The CSS working group intends to spend a lot of time on
developing the CSS
test suites along with the CSS specifications. By providing a
test suite for each module as soon as the module is published, we
hope not only that CSS3 implementations will conform to the
specification much earlier, but also that people will have an
easier time understanding the formal text of the spec.
The test suites have their own archived mailing list public-css-testsuite@w3.org. Please send
error reports, test case submissions, and any other questions and
comments about the CSS test suites there. Elika Etemad maintains
the CSS Testing Wiki with
more info for contributors.
Raising issues via GitHub is also possible:
see the CSS test
repository.
